The fledgling network does seem to be trying to get better. Though if you’ve seen their new full page ad in today’s edition of the New York Times, you know they’re not trying nearly hard enough when it comes to diversity. That goes for diversity in terms of both content and the cast that serves as the face of it. Yes, it’s nice to see Sanjay Gupta and Fareed Zakaria add a little flavor to an otherwise full-fledged vanilla fest.

Where are the Latinos? Where are, to quote my beloved Janet Jackson, our “Asian persuasions”? It’s cute (in an iTunes genius sort of way) to see the network quote Jay-Z. But why are the only splotches of Black on this page the font?

Mind you, this advertisement comes on the heels of news that Soledad O’Brien is leaving CNN. Ditto for political correspondent Roland Martin, whose services are reportedly no longer required. Personally, I enjoyed Soledad’s morning show interviews more so than her Black in America specials. They had too much of an after-school special feel for my liking.

Nonetheless, she and Roland offered something remarkably different than what we generally see on broadcast and cable news networks: words coming from a mouth not belonging to a White male.

It’s a situation MSNBC has sought to rectify on its network, primarily with assigning Melissa Harris-Perry, TourÉ, and Rev. Al Sharpton their own shows. Moreover, in the case of Chris Hayes, former host of Up with Chris Hayes and now All In with Chris Hayes, he makes sure that his panelists reflect the make up of America (examples include guests like Joy-Ann Reid, Goldie Taylor, and Karen Finney).

In fact, both Hayes and Harris stepped out of the typical circle of pundits, and in a study about their Sunday morning talk show peers, Media Matters found:

MSNBC’s Programs Were The Only Ones Not Dominated By White Men. Both Melissa Harris-Perry and Up hosted white men in line with their representation in the general population (approximately 39 percent, according to U.S. Census data). By contrast, white men were significantly overrepresented on the broadcast and CNN Sunday shows.

Diversifying has its benefits, as Mediate noted in the case of MSNBC’s ratings:

The network enjoyed significant (around 20%) ratings increases across the board, but made astonishing gains with their already-large African American audience, growing that audience by 60.5% for the Mon-Sun 8pm-11pm period. MSNBC President Phil Griffin told me, in a phone interview, that he is “thrilled” with that result, and that it “says a lot about what we’ve been doing over the last few years.”

In that same time period, CNN grew its black audience by 23.7%(from 131,000 in 2011 to 162,000 in 2012, 23.9% of their total audience), while Fox News’ declined by 23.7% (38,000 in 2011 to 29,000 in 2012, 1.4% of their total audience), but MSNBC had more black viewers than both of those nets combined (from 177,000 in 2011 to 284,000 in 2012, 31.4% of their total audience). What’s more impressive is that MSNBC attained 60% growth after being number one in that demographic last year, and the year before.

Look, I love Anderson Cooper. And Jake Tapper is probably one of my favorite people on Twitter. Back in the 1990s, one of my cousins actually served as an anchor on the network. Plus, I’m really happy they brought back James Earl Jones‘ “This Is CNN” promo.

Baby steps, you guys.

Still, any network that claims to be serious about diversity has got to do more than quote Jay-Z. Try again. Try harder. Try actually reintroducing yourselves as something the audience hasn’t seen so many times already.

Michael Arceneauxis a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer and blogger. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

"I'm just trying to make a way out of no way, for my people" -Modejeska Monteith Simpkins

AFRICAN AMERICA IS AT WAR

THERE IS A RACE WAR ON AFRICAN AMERICA

THERE IS A RACE WAR ON AFRICAN AMERICANS

THERE IS A RACE WAR ON BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA

AMERICA'S RACISTS HAVE INFILTRATED AMERICAN POLICE FORCES TO WAGE A RACE WAR AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA

THE BLACK RACE IS AT WAR

FIRST WORLD WAR: THE APPROXIMATELY 6,000 YEAR WORLD WAR ON AFRICA AND THE BLACK RACE

Re-introduction?

The re-introduction of CNN once again, back to White America.

Regarding diversity, CNN can say they have diversity because if you look at that 12 person line-up above, you have 3 minorities in that grouping:

Sanjay Gupta, Christine Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria....who aren't White but Indian Muslim Americans that satisfies their affirmative action/diversity quota and since they aren't Black, White viewers are not going to complain because all 3 have been solid regulars on cable news and political talk shows for years and aren't expected to support/cheer lead for Blacks.

President Obama is almost 3.5 years and a wake-up from leaving the Presidency and the White House so CNN and other networks have started clearing the decks early getting rid of Blacks so when the next White President enters the White House, it's won't be such a shock to both Black and White people when the next White President arrives by blood letting Blacks at that time.

Not many Blacks are really paying attention right now and if they are, they are complaining a little but it would be really different if the blood letting of Blacks started later than sooner.

Now as the ratings dip because of the sudden changes, they see this as normal because as Blacks and Hispanics leave, Whites who left will be returning.

For Donna Brazile, Roland Martin, Soledad O' Brian etc who didn't get their contracts renewed even though they didn't do anything wrong expect for being Black, CNN will come back to them and offer them contracts once again but probably "limited contracts" without with the same visibility and vigor that they previously had while Obama was on office.

And I'll bet the same will happen to all the Sunday political talk shows with regular Blacks the closer Obama gets to leaving.

I am waiting to see when MSNBC starts getting rid of Al Sharpton from their line up because the only reason he even got a gig is because he dearly supports President Obama and the closer Obama is to leaving, Rev. Al's days are numbered.

Also MSNBC is going with younger Black anchors like Melissa Harris Perry and others while ridding themselves of the older "mother and father figure" news anchors.

This reminds me of our slave history when slaves from Africa were captured and stolen from their homeland and transported by slave ships for months at sea.

The slave ships were either loaded with the intended amount of slaves based on the size of the ship's cargo hold or they acquired more slaves than expected based on the slave buyer's demands.

At some point of the long journey if it came down to not having enough food/supplies to support the food nourishment of all the shackled slaves in the slave cargo holds and that of the crew especially if they were over loaded with more than expected, the slave ship's captain made the calculated decision in addition to slaves that died along the journey, to purposely throw enough living slaves overboard to their drowning deaths in the Atlantic Ocean in order to maintain enough food/supplies for the remaining captured slaves that allowed them to maintain the remaining slaves nourishment needs and did not affect too much, his predetermined quota of slaves for his slave buyers.

And even if his predetermined numbers because of drowning slaves caused a problem for the buyers, it can be explained away as "a necessary decision based on potential slave rebellion/uprising and ship safety concerns".

I see it as America was about to drift back into where it was trying to be headed in the 70's, a society of acceptance, and about that time, President Obama was elected, so America's racist have been hard at work behind the scenes as well as out front doing what they do best to undue any social progress that was being made, just as they did in the 70s, 60s, after Emancipation and during Jim Crow. They are planning to once again, undo any social progress America has made, and their first rule of business is to take back their Propaganda Machine and all its arms, the Media.

Quote by sunnubian: " America's racist have been hard at work behind the scenes as well as out front doing what they do best to undue and social progress that was being made, just as they did in the 70s, 60s, after Emancipation and during Jim Crow."

I don't think it's just racist Whites working hard behind the scenes but so called non racist Whites working on stage out front who are in cahoots, colluding or conspiring together secretly as a partnership.... hard at work with a smile on their faces fooling the masses providing the needed coverage and concealment for racist Whites to do their behind the scenes dirty work of dismantling decades of social progress.

Since President Obama took office and the shock waves permeated and spread throughout White America, none of them were happy because they all saw America and the world changing and they got really scared because their place in society as the dominant race in America is about to be toppled and that doesn't sit well with non racist as well as racist Whites.

All that "were now in a post racist society since Obama is elected" is total bullshit.

In almost 4 and a half years, I have yet to see or hear ANY non racist Whites individually or collectively, publically admonish, rally and rail against racist Whites for their words, deeds or actions since Obama took office.

All they do is the basic sugar coat for racist Whites (calling it politics) and when they do try and attempt to do it, it's always targeted to the usual suspects....KKK, Aryan Nation/Neo Nazi or militia groups that are the normal easy targets that's no surprise to any Whites racist or not.

No Whites like what America future holds for them regarding population, social and political dominance and right now they feel really threatened since Republican Mitt Romney didn't win the Presidency that was supposed to reset the clock back to White conservatism that returned their country and power back that they could capitalize on down the road.

And now in their minds, the only thing that's hopeful is that they elect a White Republican President and if a White Democrat is elected in 2016, pray that the White President will "do the right thing" simply because they're White.

And if they don't get either, Whites will feel trapped in a corner, see no way out and purposely try and blow everything up to include themselves in order for this minority social and political changes to not happen,

IMO, they will commit mass suicide on themselves and if we are not careful, will take all of us with them.

American Whites know as a race they failed to rid themselves of Obama and because of that, are desperately in a full mode panic right now. They know their numbers are severely dwindling, they NEVER WANTED accepted minorities for any reason what so ever and have no support system except for themselves.

Whites thought that slavery would last forever because it was deemed God's will. They thought Jim Crow would last forever and they also KNEW that Romney was going to beat Obama because they along with Romney, truly believed that Whites would never make the same mistake twice by reelecting a Black man.

They were wrong then and now to their total horror and detriment to future progress, the numbers going forward against them don't lie.

Whites thought that slavery would last forever because it was deemed God's will. They thought Jim Crow would last forever and they also KNEW that Romney was going to beat Obama because they along with Romney, truly believed that Whites would never make the same mistake twice by reelecting a Black man.

They were wrong then and now to their total horror and detriment to future progress, the numbers going forward against them don't lie.

You ain't never lied my brotha. They were WRONG. And yes they are the types that will commit suicide and take every one with 'em. But! Our some of young folks have beat them to it in terms of committing social suicide-its ongoing now in the hood. It just doesn't feel like it cuz many of us have become desensitized. And the only reason why whitefolks thought slavery will be forever is because it had been around for more than 2 thousand years....and that's forever to a lot of people who have benefit from it. And the slap in the face? Was when slavery ended abruptly in this country,,,,,and whitefolks still haven't recovered from the shock. But!

As far as the new white-washed CNN? They can have that shyte. Cuz no matter how they try to homogenized the truth? It'll still be according to WHAT network you listen to...whether its a white face or black face speaking it. Don't matter. And I'm sure that Cooper and Morgan are gonna remain true to who they are. I'm not familiar with the rest of 'em. And really don't care one way or the other. I just know that the two I have mentioned have always shown colorless integrity in their reporting and that's enough for me. But!

Remove From Your Block List

Manage Follow Preferences

Block

When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.